


Out of Joint

by Mytha



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Bad Future, Character Death, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, In Hushed Whispers, Suffering, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-02 14:21:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12728253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mytha/pseuds/Mytha
Summary: Vivienne and Cassandra live through "In Hushed Whispers."





	Out of Joint

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hibernate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hibernate/gifts).



> You mentioned an interest in something set during this quest - and also said you are fine with unhappy endings. This is the dark plot bunny that came and sat on my chest at night.

Strong magic overpowers them, knocks them back before either Cassandra or Vivienne can react. Alexius has surprised them all. The Inquisitor and Dorian are ripped away in an explosion of dark smoke and green light. When they stand back up, Alexius and his Venatori have executed the Inquisition scouts and surrounded them. The battle is hot and fierce, but they are out-numbered. Vivienne curses as her magic is dispelled again and again and five Venatori manage to tie her down with force. As Cassandra begins to call upon her gift, she is knocked unconscious from behind. 

 

They pace in their cell. What can be done now that the Inquisitor has been lost? Vivienne projects poise and disdain still, while Cassandra fights the anger, tries to quell her desperation. They have failed. How could they fail? It was not supposed to end like this. 

 

Alexius boasts, rants, tells them of the successes of his master. Corypheus has raised a demon army, and it is tearing through Thedas. News of Empress Celene's assassination rends them speechless. Every day they hear of another city's ruin. News pass between cells, whispered under tears and in shocked monotone. Soon all of Orlais has been sacked by Corypheus' army. Their jailers taunt them. Behind another door someone wails. 

 

Leliana's arrival, in chains, makes the fall of the Inquisition real. They have been defeated. They sit in silence as they learn of Cullen's death in battle, Josephine's execution. Leliana tells of Solas' sudden desertion and Blackwall's disappearance – as well as Sera's attempt to warn the other Jennies. Nobody has heard from Varric or Cole – maybe they are still out there, but Thedas is falling to the demons and Venatori fast. 

 

Together they wait – until Leliana is taken away. She is not returned to them, and the news that reaches them of Alexius' experiments carves wounds of hollow horror into their hearts. To be here is a fate worse than death. They swear they will resist. There is life in them, there might be hope.

 

As red lyrium begins to take over the castle, more and more members of the Chantry join them in the cells. Soon they begin to disappear, one by one. “The Elder One is particularly hard on the Chantry,“ Vivienne remarks dryly, but Cassandra sees the pain in her eyes. Corypheus seeks to eradicate all other religions to set himself up as the only god. The Venatori still delight in attempts of forced conversion. Fewer and fewer prisoners remain, waiting for the inevitable. Jagged teeth of glowing lyrium maul the castle walls, grow and bite. 

 

The castle dungeons are dank and freezing in the winter, and what little straw is left in the cells cannot keep the creeping cold from permeating the ground and seep into their starved bodies. There are no fires, only the sickly red glow of ever-present red lyrium. They lie closer and closer, seeking heat, until Vivienne no longer strays from the kind offer of Cassandra's arms. 

 

They are familiar now, all walls and artifice stripped away. They whisper to each other – no longer plans of escape and revenge, but tales of their childhoods, lost loves, obstacles overcome, the memories of better times and adventures shared. There is no longer a point in secrets. It is Cassandra who first finds the tell-tale red crystals on Vivienne's skin, her caress stopped by a ruby crust of poison they knew seeped into their bones. Now it is blossoming on dark skin. 

 

They have been separated now, brought up, closer to Alexius, but still he seems to have forgotten them. The castle is quieter now - there are few Venatori and fewer prisoners left. Outside, the light has faded. The world has been swallowed whole by the Fade. Thedas has lost this battle – even the Venatori. They have seen the seeping tumors of red lyrium bursting from afflicted bodies and pillars of it stand in lonely cells now waiting to be torn down for use. They try not to think of the future. “We'll be with the Maker soon,” Vivienne whispers to Cassandra in the cell across from her. They pray. Nothing can help them now. The red death has claimed their bodies. 

 

The Inquisitor is a dream, a demon sent to break them. Vivienne does not believe the illusion, but Cassandra leaps at the promise of salvation - a believer even now. If the plan is to kill Alexius, Vivienne will follow even a dream of revenge into death. The healing potions Trevelyan wastes on them bring them to their feet once more, they traverse the nightmare of the castle, alive but barely there. If the Inquisitor lives then none of this will matter. 

 

When they are reunited with Leliana, they hardly recognize her, but she is as eager to fight as they are – kept alive only by the need to revenge what was done to them and to stop this future from ever being visited upon Thedas. Inside them, the red fire burns, consumes their other thoughts. They are dead already, but with the Inquisitor, there may yet be hope. 

 

Alexius falls, Corypheus comes. A look exchanged: “We will do whatever it takes to keep them at bay, ” Vivienne promises. The Inquisitor's face screams the shock and horror they can no longer feel. As the heavy doors close behind them, they rush forward into the force of demons to find sought-for release side by side.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to RipplesofAqua for the beta!


End file.
